Sunday, October 30, 2016

Due to low seating capacity in both ballparks, Cleveland Indians v. Chicago Cubs in the 2016 World Series may be averaging fewer than 40,000 fans per game.

Wrigley Field, the Cubs park, is old but the Indians park is pretty new but it's one of those clever modern parks built to have the features of parks from 100 years ago, including exposure to the elements, like rain, wind and cold. It's also small to keep tickets scarce and expensive.

After some common sense checking it appears that the most recent World Series with a lower average attendance is probably 1946: Cardinals v. Red Sox. The Cardinals were still playing in their old small park and Fenway Park in Boston had yet to add those monstrous seats above the 37 foot high Green Monster wall in left.

Of course, Wrigley Field, where the Cubs play, was the last park to not have lights, which were added in the 1980s to accommodate night playoff games on television.

Corey Kluber started, pitched six innings and won game one of the 2016 World Series for the Cleveland Indians against the Chicago Cubs three days ago. Can Kluber also start and win games 4 and 7? A Cleveland starting pitcher did it 96 years ago.

It's amazing how many people still cling to the fantasy that a pitcher can start and win three games in the World Series: games one, four and seven. Thirteen pitchers have won three games in a World Series, none more than once, three in the first two WS, only one since 1968. Eight of the 13 occurred between 1903 and 1920. Since 1920 only three started and won three games: Lew Brurdette 1957, Bob Gibson 1967 and Mickey Lolich 1968. The only pitcher ever to start and win games 1, 4, 7 in a best of seven: Bob Gibson 1967. Stan Coveleski did it in a best of nine: 1920. These pitchers won a game in relief: Wood, Faber, Brecheen and Randy Johnson, the most recent three game winner (2001).
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In the 1920 World Series Stan Coveleski was the pitching star for Cleveland: three complete game victories in three starts: ERA 0.67. In the regular season he was second to Bagby, Sr. in innings with 315 and 24-14, ERA 2.49. He won World Series games 1, 4, 7. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969.
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They represent ten different teams. Of the ten tournament teams, only three had a top ten HR hitter: Baltimore, Toronto, Chicago Cubs.

In 2015 only 20 players hit at least 30 HR, so the number almost doubled. In 2015 Baltimore also had the player with the most, also 47 HR, but he was Chris Davis, not Mark Trumbo. In 2015 Nelson Cruz was also second.

In 2014 the number of players with at least 30 HR was 11. Nelson Cruz was the only player with at least 40 HR: 40. Cruz was then with Baltimore.

In 2013: 14; Chris Davis 53.

So in the three most recent seasons the number has about doubled twice: 11, 20, 38.

Of the top ten in team HR, only St. Louis and Colorado had only one 30 HR player. The rest had multiple.

Of the top ten in team runs scored (Boston most: 878), only Washington did not have a 30 HR player. Six had multiple 30 HR players: Boston (3), Cubs, Cleveland, Seattle (3), Texas, Toronto. Three teams had one: Colorado, St. Louis, Arizona.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

There's a too long article in The Times about Maurice Lerner. Maury Lerner played 482 minor league games in eight seasons but never played a single major league game. Lerner evolved into a mob hit man and spent 18 years in prison. In the stuff about baseball in the article is a mention of a teammate, Nick Testa:

Notice that debut and last game have the same dates. Nick Testa played in one major league game but never came to the plate. Testa was almost 30 years old. Testa started in D ball in 1946 and finished in A ball in 1964. He did not play in 1953, presumably because he was in the U.S. Army. In 1962 at age 34 Testa played 57 games in the Japan Pacific League. Then back to the U.S. to play in Reno and Yakima.

From 1947 through 1958 Testa was in the Giants minor league system. They were the New York Giants for all but the last of those seasons. So, Testa was playing for one of his hometown teams.

In 1958 he played only with the San Francisco Giants; he did not play in the minors. This was the first Giants season in San Francisco after leaving New York. Testa's one and only game in 1958:

Nick Testa must have been the number three catcher for the Giants. In the bottom of the fourth the Giants trailed 5-0. They scored a run and with two outs had a runner on third with Valmy Thomas coming up. Whitey Lockman pinch hit for Thomas and flied out to center. Lockman was replaced by Bob Schmidt.

In the bottom of the eighth trailing 6-2 the first two Giants made outs. Then single, single, walk. The Cardinals replaced starting pitcher Sam Jones with Phil Paine and the Giants had Ray Jablonski pinch hit for their second catcher of the day Bob Schmidt. Jablonski singled to left driving in two runs. Andre Rodgers pinch hit for pitcher Ray Crone and Nick Testa pinch ran for Jablonski. Rodgers struck out ending the 8th inning: Cardinals 6, Giants 4.

In the top of the 9th inning Marv Grissom came on to pitch for the Giants and pinch runner Nick Testa stayed in the game as the Giants catcher. Del Ennis was the fourth Cardinal batter and Testa dropped his foul pop for an error. However, Ennis flied out to right, so no damage was caused by Testa's error. It was his only fielding chance. The Cardinals scored a run and led 7-4.

In the bottom of the 9th the Giants rallied for 4 runs to win 8-7. the final two batters:

- Orlando Cepeda tripled to drive in two runs

- Daryl Spencer homered to drive in Cepeda with the tieing run and then Spencer scored the winning run.

Nick Testa was two spots below Spencer in the lineup. Had Spencer and the next batter walked, Testa could have had a chance to be the hero with a single.

Why didn't Testa play in any other games in 1958, even in the minor leagues? Maybe he was injured. But at least Nick Testa had that one opportunity to play in a major league game, no matter how briefly, no matter how inconsequential. It was more than Maury Lerner, who wound up doing very hard time for nearly two decades.